


Road Trip

by notjustmom



Series: August Writing Prompts 2019 [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), F/M, Gen, Mention of May's death, Road Trip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-07-31 00:58:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20106547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Natasha suggests the boys take a road trip after the attack in New York...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> another plot bunny that will become much longer...

“Romanov. Seriously?”

“You guys need time to, I don’t know, bond? You’re used to working solo, he’s used to leading, two Alpha males, not usually a good mix. Put the suit in storage, and show him the country, as it is now. Last time he saw it was over 70 years ago. Talk to him. I mean, really talk to him, and let him get to know you. Maybe finally ask all those questions you’ve been dying to ask him.”

“I’m not - there aren’t - Nat.” Tony crosses his arms at her, then sees the half smirk dance over her features, and knows he is beaten. “Did he agree?”

“Haven’t asked him yet, thought it would be better coming from you.”

“Right. I’m doin’ this for you -” she raises an eyebrow at him and he kisses her forehead. “Maybe I’ll teach him how to drive on the way.”

“Don’t you dare,” she hisses under her breath. “The last thing the world needs is someone else who drives like you.”

“But you trust me to drive Cap 3,000 miles across the country?” He grins at her as she rolled her eyes at him, then spins on her heel and leaves the workshop. He shakes his head, then pulls his phone from his pocket.

“Cap. Hey. You up for a road trip?”

“Road trip?”

“I’m headed back to Malibu this afternoon, been a while since you’ve seen California, thought it might be a good way for us to get to know each other.”

Rogers snorts as he gazes up at the ceiling of his cheap motel room. “Nat.”

“Of course, Nat. Pick you up at noon?”


	2. Chapter 2

This is a terrible idea. - T

When are you picking him up? - Nat

I’m sitting in front of his building. - T

Have fun! :) - Nat

I hate you. - T

Yeah, I know. Say hey to Pepper for me. - Nat

You know you love me. - Nat

Yeah. See ya in a few weeks. - T

“Stark.” Steve taps on the passenger side window and Tony unlocks the door, and pops open the trunk. 

“Cap. Toss your stuff in the trunk, you’ll need all the legroom you can get.”

Tony watches as Rogers pushes back the seat as far back as it will go and shakes his head. “Okay. It’s going to be a long trip. Thinking we’ll take the shortest way possible, but feel free to let me know if there are any landmarks along the way that you really need to see before - well - you know. Rule number 1.”

Steve rolls his eyes, but decides to go along with it. “Rule number 1…?”

“Any short jokes, just get them out of the way now.”

“I wasn’t - Stark. You think -”

“I just know in a couple of hours, I’m sure you will have a few - I don’t really have a complex -”

“Right -” Steve covers his mouth with both hands and Tony can’t help but laugh.

“My plan at the moment is that it will take us a week if we make a few stops. I’m thinking I’ll drive through tonight. I don’t really sleep as a rule, I’m assuming with your super serum -”

“Nah. Don’t sleep much.”

“Good. Great. This is gonna be fun. Now, any music requests?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of my own canon for this story, for some reason, I get the idea that Cap doesn't snack much, but his weakness is plain M&Ms...

“How’s it going?”

Steve sighs as he leans against the car while he waits for Tony to come out of the roadside country store. “Getting a crash course in the louder spectrum of the music that I missed over the last 70 years. I miss the Big Band Era like you wouldn’t believe.”

“You guys talking at all?”

“Kind of. I can tell he wants to ask me something, guessing it’s about his dad.”

“So, why don’t you bring him up?”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea, Nat.” 

“So, are you Beatles or Rolling Stones?”

“Hmm… I like the early Beatles. Later stuff was just too weird.” He hears Nat laugh at the other end then looks up to see Tony coming out the door with two large gift bags. “Damn.”

“What?”

“Tony - it’s nothing. I’ll call you later, Nat.”

“Be nice.”

“I’m always nice.”

“That Nat?” Tony asks as he puts one of the bags in the trunk, then tosses the other in the small back seat.

“Yeah, she wanted to be sure we hadn’t killed each other yet. What’s all that?”

“Some stuff for Pepper, and some snacks. I’m starving. Don’t you ever get hungry?

“Sometimes, when I’m - I don’t know, stressed.”

“Got some M&Ms in there.”

“The plain ones?”

“Yep.”

Tony grins at him, a bit shyly, and slams his door, then starts the car. “Now, where were we?”

“Any chance there’s any Benny Goodman on the radio somewhere?”

“All right, Benny Goodman, coming up.”

_They asked me how I knew  
My true love was true  
Oh, I of course replied  
Something here inside cannot be denied  
They said someday you'll find  
All who love are blind  
Oh, when your heart's on fire  
You must realize  
Smoke gets in your eyes…*___

_ _

_ _Tony says nothing after the song ends, but after a moment, turns the radio off and clears his throat, then asks quietly, “will you tell me about my father?”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach


	4. Chapter 4

Steve waits a beat, then asks gently, “what do you want to know?”

“You knew him when he was young. Was he - I mean, would I have liked him? Would he -”

Steve stares down at his hands, then looks up at Tony’s profile, his eyes are looking at the road ahead of him, but his jaw is tight, and his hands are gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles are white. “Yeah, I think he would have liked you very much, Tony. He was a pain in the ass, but he was brilliant and funny as hell. He was my friend and I still miss him. 

When I watched you fall in New York, I froze. There was nothing I could do to help you, but Bruce caught you just before you hit the ground. And then, I thought you were dead, and then you weren’t. I’m not good at relationships, or trusting people. I keep losing everyone who is important to me, and I didn’t want you to be important to me, because it’s easier not to care too much. I know that sounds awful, and now I know I was wrong.”

“Wrong about what?” Tony whispers.

“I was wrong about you. You are a lot like your dad, but you are a decent person. You actually care about people. He cared as long as they could be of use to him. I know he liked me, but I was also a successful experiment. I was a specimen more than a person to him. What I said to you on that ship - that you wouldn’t sacrifice yourself - obviously I was wrong, and I’m sorry, Tony.”

“Hey. I know you don’t need to eat much, but there’s a Burger King. We’re ahead of schedule anyway.”

“Tony.”

Tony turns into the parking lot, parks the car, and rests his head on the steering wheel for a moment. “I’m not good at this stuff either. I flew that nuke up there because I couldn’t see any other option and I couldn't let all those people die, including you. I didn’t want to do it. I knew the odds were small, okay, they were fucking infinitesimal, that I would make it back. Alright? I still don’t know how and why I survived that fall. I’m a scientist, an engineer, a mathematician, Steve. I shouldn’t be here, but I am. And right now, I really need a cheeseburger. Coming?”

“Right behind you.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Why cheeseburgers?” Steve asks as they stand in line to place their orders.

“Hmm. The one really good day I remember with my dad. For some reason, out of the blue, he took me fishing. He got me out of bed at like, maybe four in the morning, and we drove for an hour to this really gorgeous lake. We didn’t have a boat, we just stood on the shoreline - he tried to teach me how to fly fish. I was terrible at it. I think I was, hell, must have been ten, end of summer break or something. We didn’t really talk, but we watched the sun rise, and he had brought cocoa in a thermos for me. There were all kinds of birds. He would tell me what some of them were. There were dragonflies, and I think I heard some frogs and there were some nasty mosquitos. Anyway, we were there for four hours, didn’t catch a damn thing. But he didn’t get angry, We just drove a couple hours to his favorite burger place and had cheeseburgers. Still the best I ever had.”

“May I take your ord -” The cashier blinks at them. “You’re him. You’re definitely you and you -”

Tony shakes his head and insists politely, “no, Ma’am, you’ve got us confused with some other guys. Happens all the time.”

She squints at him then shrugs. “Takes all kinds, I guess, what can I get for you?”

“We’d like four whoppers with everything, two large orders of fries and - milkshake?”

Steve stifles a grin but manages to mutter, “vanilla.”

“Figures.” Tony rolls his eyes. “One vanilla shake and one chocolate.”

Tony grabs a stack of napkins and a couple more straws than they need, then sits down at a booth. “Sit. Before someone realizes who we really are. I don’t think she’ll say anything.”

“I didn’t even think that anyone would notice us,” Steve admits with a shake of his head.

“Uhm. Steve. You are, well, _you_, and you have that blond, blue-eyed thing going on. Me, I’m kind of average looking, people expect me to look taller, and since I’m not wearing the armor - it’s easier for me to blend in.”__

_ _“But, four years ago -”_ _

_ _“That was four years ago. These days that’s like forty in press years.”_ _

_ _“New York. That was just last week?”_ _

_ _The cashier places their tray on the table and mumbles under her breath. “It’s on the house, fellas. You all are getting a bad rap. I figure if you all weren’t fightin’ your rather attractive asses off, none of us would be here right now. Enjoy your lunches, boys.”_ _

_ _Tony removes his sunglasses and offers her the most sincere smile Steve has ever seen on his friend’s face, then pulls out a business card and writes his personal cell phone number on the back. “If you ever need anything, just give me a call, Grace.”_ _

_ _“Well, damn. Don’t you just - eat up before it gets cold and your milkshakes melt. You just made my day.” She turns from the table and they can hear her whistling as she makes her way back behind the counter, and yells out, “next!”_ _

_ _“I think next time we’ll just go through the drive-thru.” Tony growls under his breath as people keep turning and looking at them. Steve can’t help but smother a giggle as Tony pushes his sunglasses back into place, and he wishes he had brought his sketchbook with him. He’ll just have to remember - and as Tony grins back at him, he already knows it’s a trip he won’t ever forget._ _


	6. Chapter 6

They finally leave the restaurant after signing a few autographs and taking a picture with Grace for her grandchildren, and Tony sits quietly for a moment before he starts the car.

“What?” Steve has reclined the seat as far back as it can go and pushed his baseball cap over his face.

“Do you ever regret it?”

“Regret -? Oh. Signing up for the experiment? No.” He shakes his head and pulls out the compass from his pocket, and shows it to Tony. “Never would have met Peggy.”

“She thinks you are the best thing since sliced bread.”

Steve sits up and stares at him. “You know Peg?”

“Grew up having Sunday dinners with her, she’d come over for holidays. Man, the stories she would tell about you and the old days. She’s the one who helped me apply to MIT as early as I did. She loved my dad, but she knew how toxic he was for me. She knew I needed to get out of that house. Saved my life.”

“She saved both of us. I wouldn’t have survived the war without the serum.”

“Hell, Steve, you didn’t survive it with it, idiot.” Tony laughs and starts the car, but after a moment, he wonders if he’s gone too far, and he turns it off again, then turns to look at him. “Shit. I’m sorry -”

“No, I should have at least tried to bail out - but all I could think about was making sure I got the jet down, and I didn’t know what I was doing. It was stupid. There are days when all I think about is what might have been with Peggy. I just lost so much time. And I don’t - I know what you think of me.”

“What, you’re a mind reader now?” Tony snorts, but he sees Steve’s face change, and he begins, “Steve - look.”

“I’m old enough to be your grandfather, we’re from different generations, I see what you can do - what you have created, you’re amazing, Tony. When we don’t have a mission, I try to catch up on all the stuff I missed out on. I have days, weeks, sometimes when I wish they had never found me and pulled me from the ice. I don’t belong here, in this time, and I know you resent -”

Tony shakes his head. “I’m not a strategist, I’m not good with people. Give me a problem that needs tech, and I’m your guy, that’s my schtick. I fix stuff. But what you did back in New York? Somehow you made us believe that the six of us were enough to beat the Chitauri and Loki, otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here now. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to go home to Pepper and, well -” He reaches over and pops open the glove compartment, and pulls out a black velvet box, then puts it back and says quietly, “if you weren’t here, I wouldn’t be able to propose to her when we get back to California. You’re a leader, Cap. Without you bossing us around, we’re like what Banner said on that ship, we’re a lab experiment - a chaotic mess, but you let us do the things we can do, what makes us unique, and you got us all home. So, thank you. I never did thank you after.”

“I got you killed, Tony. You were dead for half a minute.”

“Steve. It was the only way, and you know it. Wasn’t your fault.”

“Tony.”

Tony turns and offers Steve his hand. “I’m not great at the friendship thing, just ask Rhodey and Happy, they’d tell you to run, but I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.” Steve shakes his head but finally nods and holds Tony’s smaller hand in his and manages not to bruise his fingers. “Now, if I remember correctly, you like baseball, yeah? JARVIS?”

“Sir."

"Find us a baseball game on the radio that won’t put me to sleep.”

"I will do my utmost, sir."


	7. Chapter 7

“Huh - wha?” Steve jolts awake from his nap as Tony comes to a sudden stop and sharply turns the car around.

“Kid. There’s a kid in the rain, almost missed him - with the hoodie -”

“Tony.”

“He’s out in the rain at night in the middle of where the hell are we now?” Tony squints at his GPS and shakes his head. “Nebraska, where the - hey kid, where are ya headed?”

“Cool car, Mister. I’m trying to get to California.” 

“Steve-”

“Huh?”

“Hop out so the kid can get in?”

“Right. Sorry.” Steve opens the door and slowly uncurls from his seat, then steps out of the car and stretches to his full height.

“No effing way! But you’re - you’re him and -” The boy leans in through the window and shakes his head. "You're -"

“Kid, you comin’ or not? We don’t want the old man getting too wet -”

“Right, yeah, okay, sorry.” He walks around to the other side, pushes the seat forward and slips easily into the back seat, then pulls off his soaked rucksack and lowers his hood.

Steve drops back into the front seat again and pulls it up to give the kid a bit more leg room, then turns to face him.

“You know who we are. What do we call you, kid?”

“I’m Peter, Peter Parker.” He takes Steve's offered hand gives it a squeeze.

“Damn, Peter, quite the grip.”

“Sorry. Uhm. Mr. Rogers. Not used to being around people so much. Forgot -”

“Call me Cap, Peter. This is Tony. Where are you from?”

“New York.”

Steve rolls his eyes and sighed. “Yeah, I know. Whereabouts?”

“Queens.”

“Brooklyn.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Peter rubs his nose nervously. “Everyone knows about you. I still can’t believe -”

“When did you last eat, Pete?” Tony looks up at him through his rear view mirror and sighs. Dark circles under his eyes told him it had been a while since the boy had really slept, and he was in desperate need of a haircut, but he had obviously been trying to keep up his appearance; he was used to being on the road, to being on his own, for a while now, he guesses.

Peter shrugs. “Couple days maybe, don’t know really -”

“Next place we come to - we’ll stop, okay? For now, try to sleep.”

“Thanks, uhm, Mr. Stark.”

“Kid, call me Tony, yeah?”

“I don’t think so.” With that, he curls up in the backseat and under a minute, the rattle of a snore can be heard from the backseat.

“Tony.”

“We’ll figure out who he is once we get to my place.”

“His grip.”

Tony turns and glances down at his friend’s hand, the bruise is already beginning to heal, but the imprint that was fading was still in the shape of fingermarks. “The kid?”

Steve nods. “He’s -”

Tony sighs again and looks back at the sleeping boy. “Well, if anyone can help him, it’s us, yeah?”

“What do we know about kids?”

“We were kids once, remember? Remember how much it sucked being alone? Can you imagine what it must be like to be what he is at his age and alone?” He rolls his eyes as the rain picks up again, and he mutters, “next exit, we’ll find a place to crash for the night.”

“Tony -”

“I know, but we’re all he’s got, and I’m not gonna let him down. Just got a feeling about him, Steve, trust me, yeah?”

“Yeah," Steve pauses, and looks at him before he yawns and closes his eyes before he mutters, " I do."

Tony raises an eyebrow at him, but doesn’t say a word as he starts the car again and drives back into the storm.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this verse, May has died before the Attack on New York, leaving Peter on his own...

“Heya, Ms. Potts.”

“Tony? Where are you?”

“At the moment we’re in the second worst motel in the third smallest town in Nebraska. Rogers went out for a walk after the rain stopped, needed to stretch his legs...”

“Are you two getting along? Wait. What is it?”

Tony rolls his eyes at the cracks in the ceiling, she could always tell by a simple drop in his voice when something was up.

“There was this kid, by the side of the road.”

“Kid, meaning…?”

Tony looks over at Peter snoring on the bed and considers for a moment. “Guess he’s about 16, could be 17, eats like he’s that age, anyway. Thing is, he’s, hell, honey, he’s like Rogers kinda, and from what I can tell he’s on his own, and I know there’s things I should do, or have Jarvis do, but -”

“What’s his name?”

“Peter Parker. Pepper -”

“I’m just going to take a look at the missing kids database, maybe he got lost during the attack…”

Tony sighs as Peter starts tossing and turning. Nightmare. He knows the signs all too well. “I gotta go, let me know if you find out anything, yeah? I love you, Ms. Potts.”

“Love you, Mr. Stark, get some sleep, hmm?”

“Yeah, I’ll try.” He ends the call and waits to see what the kid will do; it’s obvious he’s been through something or multiple things, and he’s not sure what it is about him, but over dinner, he was asking the kinds of questions he would have asked his father, if he’d been Peter’s age now and if -

“May!” Peter yells out, making Tony jump, then his voice fades into a sob and he curls into himself, as if he’s gone back to sleep, but Tony can hear the slight change in his breathing, and decides to take a chance. He gets up and silently walks the chair over to the bed, then sits down and lays his hand on the bed next to Peter without touching him and watches as his eyes focus on the scrapes on his knuckles that are finally beginning to heal.

“You know, you really should strengthen the armor around your hands, they are your weakness, all they have to do is -”

Tony is surprised when Peter reaches out to lay his trembling fingers lightly over his for a moment, then quickly withdraws. “Who is May?”

“May? She was my aunt. The last family I had -”

“The Chitauri?” Tony whispers, hoping with everything he has that he wasn’t partly responsible for making Peter an orphan.

Peter sits up and rests against against the headboard, then looks back at him and shakes his head. “She had been sick for a long time. She died a couple months before the attack, I was already on the road when I saw the news flashes. You do know, that was crazy, what you did, flying that nuke up there. Crazy or just stupid brave, though I’m not sure they aren’t one and the same sometimes.”

“Me either, Pete. Tell me what happened to you. We know -”

“Yeah, I figured.” He offers Tony a sheepish smile, and runs his fingers through his hair. “I forgot, it’s been so long since I’ve been around other people.” He looks down at his hands and blows out a breath. “If you can believe... a spider?”

“A spider?” 

“Yeah, dunno. Last year, I was in chemistry lab after school, trying to catch up, and this spider bit me, and things got weird. I’m 16 by the way, if you were wondering. I finished high school before she died, wanted to do that for her.” He glances over at Tony and asks, “what’s it like to fly in armor like that?”

“Scary as hell,” Tony admitted with a grin. “And the most freeing thing I’ve ever done, as long as no one or nothing, as the case may be, is flying after me, trying to kill me.” 

Peter snickers, then covers his mouth with his hand and shakes his head. “Sorry. That’s so uncool. I mean you’re you - and I -”

“You said things got weird?” Tony asks quietly.

“I, uhm, ever since it happened, I feel things, sense things, everything, just too much input, from everywhere, don’t know if you know what I mean? You know how spiders know when an insect has landed on its web?” Tony nods. “I just - my reflexes - everything is just more, I dunno, turned up, like the volume? Then on the day I left, I stopped a bus, with my bare hands. Thought it was a good time to leave town before anything weirder happened. I was working on this webbing solution before I left school, you know, the spider thing? Had this silly idea, I could do some good, don’t know why.” He stops and looks down at his hands. “Thank you for everything, but you can drop me in the next big town -”

“Kid. Pete. Look at me. I know Cap would be the better person for you to talk to, I’m just a -”

“‘Man in a can’, yeah, I heard you in an interview. You know, that’s a load of, well, you know. Without you doing what you and the rest of the Avengers did, I wouldn’t have a home to go back to if I ever get back there. I don’t really have any reason to go back, but if I did, it’s still there because of you.” He shakes his head and whispers, “I’ll never be as brave as you…”

“Or as crazy?” Tony grins at him again. “Try to go back to sleep.”

Peter nods and settles back down onto the pillow. “You won’t -”

Tony shakes his head and watches as he closes his eyes again. “I’m not going anywhere, not anywhere without you, I promise.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I intended a longer chapter here, but I had a tussle with some poison ivy yesterday, and typing is a real pain in the a**. Hoping it will be better soon...
> 
> And yes, I am making the boys actually become friends in this verse, something I wish they had given us in the MCU.

“How’s he doing?” Steve asks as he returns from the walk that had turned into a run, though Tony could only tell from the slight change in his breathing. 

“He’s okay. Listen, I know it’s crazy, Steve, the two of us - like you said, what do we know about raising a kid? We won’t be raising a kid, he’s more than that. If he wants to, and I think he does, we could - he told me - hell, you heard him at dinner, he’s smarter than I was at his age, and I was at MIT then. I think, between you, me and Romanov - and Pepper making sure he sleeps and eats -”

“Tony, she can’t even get you to sleep and eat. What makes you think she or anyone else will be able to help him? When I was his age - yeah, I know, different time, but it’s tough for someone who has lost so much to trust anyone. Heck, he might not even want to join our crazy circus.”

“He needs a family, Cap. He needs people who can understand him, help him deal with what’s happened to him. But -” He turns from the window and shrugs.

“Yeah, we shouldn’t tell Fury anything about him.”

“Deal?” Tony puts out his hand for the second time in a week, and Steve nods and grasps it carefully, as he could still see the reminder of their recent battle in the tremor in his friend’s hand.

“Deal. I got plenty of sleep last night, go on, close your eyes and I’ll keep an ear out for the kid.”

“I’m -”

“Tony. We can’t help him if you crash the car before we get him home. Bed. Now.”

“Yes, sir, Cap, sir.” Tony gives him his best mock salute, but whispers as he falls into the other bed, “thanks, Steve. For being here.”

Steve turns to look at him, and shakes his head as Tony is already asleep. “Rest well, my friend.” He drops into the ancient, overstuffed chair and wonders at the idea that his first real friend since he lost Bucky, and the person he would lay down his life for is Tony Stark. He shakes his head again, as he realizes Tony would do the same for him, already has time after time in the few weeks he’s known him. “Sorry I ever doubted you, Stark."

“‘S okay, Cap, I’d doubt me too,” Tony mutters then rolls over in his sleep with a groan, and is soon snoring again.


End file.
